I am working on a larger post for CBM about level 70 twinking in PvP, but there are some funny things I’m learning along the way in PvE.

Like, gear. I’m in Brutal Gladiator’s gear for PvP, which actually looks pretty cool (but very different from the level 60 gear, no doubts there.) I got a set of the Cobalt tanking gear made for me so I could keep my tanking chops in shape, and maybe even improve on them.

Introductory tanking gear does not look as impressive as end-of-xpac PvP gear. AT ALL.

I was checking Ash out, trying to find the right tabard to pull the outfit together, seeing if the helm was decent enough to display, that sort of thing. And it struck me – she looks far less solid in her tank gear than PvP gear. More … delicate. It’s the oddest thing, because it seems backwards to the purpose of each type of gear.

I had to look at it for a while to see why I was getting this impression. It’s little visual cues, like:

Lower neckline (full neck visible, even with tabard)

Gauntlets and vambraces are thinner, making arms seem skinnier/weaker

Shoulders smaller, more rounded

Boots less chunky

Helm open faced, rides high on head, so lots of neck/face exposed

Many of these cues I see on my (male) DK’s Cata armor, too, which presents a look of fragility when you examine it too closely. The neckline especially bothers me – if I can see a lot of exposed neck, I don’t think they’re heavily armored.

So I’m actually kinda reluctant to tank in my tank set, even though I know it’s got a lot more Dodge in it. It just doesn’t LOOK that impressive.

Compare the above picture with this, and you’ll see what I mean.

(I mentioned I’m vain, right?)

Anyhow.

So I hit the LFD last night, because, hey, why not, right? And I got to choose between Northrend regulars and BC Heroics. I chose Northrend because it’s been a little while since I tanked, let’s see how this gear does now, right? Looks aren’t everything, right?

Utgarde Keep. Ugh. So tired of UK from leveling my DK. It’s like level 70-74 is nothing but mind-numbing UK runs. Pull, pull, up the stairs. Pull, pull, up the stairs. I may have liked it once upon a time, but I’ve done UK a lot now. Whatever, just keep pulling, Cyn.

I had two overzealous melee, one DK who pulled everything I didn’t (gee, thanks) and a rogue who attacked mobs I wasn’t even looking at. Typical story. We didn’t wipe or anything, everyone was nice, and I hope the DK grows up to be a good, aggro-conscious member of endgame society someday.

I digress.

I was looking at the rewards for my efforts, what did I get out of the run?

12 Justice Points.

What?

I picked up an axe, sure, but it’s worse than the PvP one I can get for like 300 honor points. Don’t need the axe.

12 JP for a random run.

I get between 100-200 Honor Points for most of my PvP play at level 70, which at 3/2 conversion rate is about 65-130 JP per match.

Murmurs reminded me that I can also only get that 12 JP 7 times a week now. That’s the daily bonus, not an every time sort of thing.

I was stunned. Northrend Dungeons are apparently only for xp and drops, not for building up a store of useful PvE points for the endgame.

I have a different CBM post I’ve been working on in fits and starts for a while about the dangers of a unified currency, and this is one of them. PvP is a better way to farm JP while leveling due to conversions than PvE.

This isn’t a case of too many HP, it’s that JP is too low for leveling. I expect that the reason Blizzard made the reward so low was to prevent high level toons from farming JP by chain running northrend dungeons. But there’s already a limit in place – you can only run 7 – and the goal should be to reward players for doing the things they want to do, not force them to do things they don’t to optimize rewards!

Two things from this:

1) I should finish up that currency post.

2) PvP is the WAY TO GO through Northrend! And Outland! And the mid to late 50s!

6 responses to “On Revisiting Northrend Dungeons as a Level 70 Twink”

My experience is entirely consistent with yours: PvP is a much more efficient way to gear up through Northrend. And it’s more fun, too, now that people treat the Wrath dungeons as nothing more than a treadmill to run on for experience points.

I’ve been saying it for months: Screw Outlands. Screw Northrend. PvP, gathering professions, and archeology are the way to go (as you please) for leveling from the mid 50’s through as far into 80-85 as you feel like going.

<3>I never really got into playing a female character until I started playing one, and then I fell in love with the Warrior class… And that’s how I became one of those creepy guys who raids on a female toon. >_>[I can’t agree with your choice of hairstyle though.]